1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a sintered silver alloy body and a copper oxide-containing clay-like composition used for the method of manufacturing a sintered silver alloy body.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-239017, filed Oct. 25, 2010, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, jewelry, artistic handcrafts, and the like made of silver represented by, for example a ring or the like, have been manufactured by casting or forging a silver-containing material in general. However, in recent years, silver clay (a silver-containing clay-like composition) including silver powder has become commercially available, and a method has been suggested that manufactures silver jewelry or artistic handcrafts having an arbitrary shape by making the silver clay into an arbitrary shape and then baking the silver clay (for example, see Patent Document 1). According to this method, silver clay can be freely shaped in the same manner as in general clay work, and it is possible to very easily manufacture jewelry, artistic handcrafts and the like made of silver by drying a shaped body obtained by shaping and then baking the shaped body using a furnace.
Generally, the silver clay described in Patent Document 1 is obtained by adding a binder and water and optionally further adding a surface active agent or the like to the powder of pure silver (pure Ag) and then kneading the mixture. However, when the silver clay is made using silver powder of pure Ag and then heated so as to manufacture a sintered silver alloy body, there is a problem in that the mechanical properties of the obtained sintered silver alloy body deteriorate since the strength of pure Ag itself is weak.
To solve the above-described problem of the mechanical properties, another method has also been suggested that manufactures a sintered silver alloy body, which is so-called sterling silver, by shaping and then baking silver clay obtained by constituting silver powder with a silver alloy that includes Ag in a component ratio of 92.5 mass % and, furthermore, copper (Cu) or the like, and adding a binder or the like to this silver powder and kneading the mixture (for example, see the ‘Example’ section or the like in Patent Document 2).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 4265127
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3274960